Nest Transitions

Whether it’s due to laziness, a desire to not rush the process, or not having a 2nd child waiting for the crib (one of my girlfriends needed to transition her older daughter early to a big girl bed when #2 was on the way, and the older child responded by climbing into the crib, removing her diaper, and leaving an unpleasant surprise…), it occurs to me that we’ve had a tendency to let Laurel’s growth - or, let’s face it, claustrophobia – determine her nest transitions.

As an infant, when Laurel wasn’t sleeping on me, she was sleeping in her Moses basket. We loved being able to move the basket around the house, keep it right next to our bed for pseudo co-sleeping (actual co-sleeping didn’t work for us since Laurel was a kidney kicker when sandwiched between us), and later on, have her sleep in the basket in the crib, to get her used to the crib environment while still feeling cozy. We finally acknowledged that it was time to retire the basket (as a stuffed animal receptacle, after loaning it out to two mom friends) once Laurel grew to the point of being wedged on all sides against the basket bumper. I still feel a little nostalgic about that piece of baby gear.

Nor did we rush the two conversions of her crib (we have a Simmons Crib ‘N More that converts from crib to daybed to full bed – it’s similar to the Simmons Harmony Lifetime Crib at Babies R Us) until – I’m slightly embarrassed to admit – Laurel refused to sleep with crib rails and then later until we added length to the daybed; instead opting to sleep in a “nest” (pile of blankets) on her rug until we broke out the toolbox to convert the daybed to the full size. Ultimately, Laurel remained in a crib until around 3 years, and then in the daybed until about 3.5 years.

We always thought the Crib ‘N More was pretty as a crib, but the Shaker styling looks truly beautiful converted as a full bed, especially with the contrasting fabrics of her big girl quilt. (Of course, now the quilt is a little small for a full bed, but I’m working on a solution to this.) When we first received the box spring and mattress, I was a little panicked by how high and large the bed seemed, but Laurel loves the space, and so far, the pillow bolsters we have on the bed are helping to define the space - though she never had a problem with falling out of the day bed - and she loves climbing up and down via a step stool. The safety factor also is improved by the fact that – perhaps due to habit developed by a long stint in the crib - Laurel actually doesn’t get out of bed until we come to her room. When we get around to working on nighttime dryness, we’ll have to figure out what to do about getting in and out of the bed in the dark to use the potty, but we’ll cross that bridge when we (lazily?) get there.

I have a tendency to get a little emotional and reflective around Laurel’s transitions, and I feel lucky that her nest transitions have been so easy, which seems attributable at least in part to not having to be in a rush to make the changes. And I guess lucky for us on the lazy front, after assembling the full bed it dawned on me that Laurel potentially could be in this bed until she flies the coop.